Viewfinder (0.0)
The Nikon Coolpix P1 does not have an optical viewfinder, but uses the live view on the 2.5-inch LCD screen with 97 percent coverage instead. While the size of the screen is nice, the resolution is inadequate. The screen solarizes horribly in just about any lighting, but is especially bad in bright light. Keeping the screen directly perpendicular to the nose is annoying.

LCD Screen (6.25)
The Nikon Coolpix P1 has a 2.5-inch LCD screen, but only 110,000 pixels to populate it. The low resolution is obvious; the LCD looks like a television screen that you are too close to. It is difficult to see if pictures are properly focused because crisp edges cannot be discerned with the poor resolution.

The amorphous silicon LCD is coated with a material to prevent reflection, but the coating does not prevent solarization. When the sun hits the LCD screen it is impossible to view. The subject in the screen takes on the appearance of a negative and it’s hard to tell if the picture will be properly exposed. There is a brightness adjustment, but it is buried in the setup menu and awfully hard to find when it’s hard to view the LCD anyway. The brightness adjustment has five steps. Instead of a live view of subjects, the P1 has a picture of a lady in a yellow hat that gets brighter and darker as the user moves up and down the brightness adjustment scale. This same lady is also the model for the Hue adjustment, also found in the Monitor Settings section of the setup menu. The Hue adjustment lets users tweak the view to be more yellow or more magenta in an 11-step scale. This does not affect the recorded image – just the LCD view.

Besides the low resolution, there are two aspects of the screen that disturb me. The first is the frame coverage; the LCD only shows 97 percent of what is being recorded, when just about all LCDs offer 100 percent coverage. Secondly, there is a reddish haze that appears occasionally when taking pictures of backlit subjects. This only appeared on the screen and not on the recorded image, but it still impedes the view. Overall, I was initially impressed by the size of the screen but later disappointed by its low quality.


Flash (5.75)
The Coolpix P1 has a built-in Speedlight flash above the lens and slightly to its left. While it is not centered directly above the lens, it is out of the way of wandering fingers so it likely won’t be blocked. The flash works quite well and is effective from 1 ft. 8 in. onwards. In the widest angle, the flash is effective to 12 ft. 6 in. When the most telephoto setting is used, the flash is only effective to 6 ft. 7 in. So when you’re at that Eagles concert and you’ve snuck your P1 past security, just realize that the flash isn’t going to light up Glenn Frey’s face – unless you’ve got on-stage passes.

The following flash modes are available when the top of the multi-selector is pushed: Auto, Auto with Red-eye Reduction, Flash Cancel, Anytime Flash, Slow Sync, and Rear Curtain Sync. The red-eye reduction mode fires three flashes before the big flash and then follows up by using Nikon’s in-camera red-eye fix technology. Still, a couple of my pictures managed to survive with red eyes.


Zoom Lens (6.25)
Sick of the slow zooms on most compact digital cameras? The Nikon P1’s zoom could win a race against any other compact any day of the week. The Nikkor 3.5x optical zoom lens is controlled by a single-paneled zoom toggle on the back of the camera. This see-saw-like control allows users to access the full 7.5-26.3mm focal length (equivalent to 36-126mm in 35mm photography). The lens itself is constructed from 7 elements in 6 groups and has a maximum aperture of f/2.7, which is a bit wider than most options on compact digital cameras’ lenses. The Zoom-Nikkor lens moves fast, so a tiny tap on the toggle will zoom faster than one would think. Ten taps on the toggle take users through the full range of focal lengths. A scale at the top of the LCD screen shows users how zoomed in they are compared to the capability of the lens. When users have exhausted the optical zoom they can push the ‘T’ portion of the toggle down for a half-second to access the 4x digital zoom. This only deteriorates picture quality, but some users just can’t get close enough. The zoom lens is overall quite sensitive, which some users love and some hate. I was a bit surprised by its quick movements at first, but shortly became accustomed to it.

Physical Tour Page 4 of 12 Design / Layout Nikon Coolpix P1 Digital Camera Review Navigation